The Hitokiri's Legacy
by Gemini14
Summary: Rurouni KenshinWeiss Kreuz Crossover. When the Battousai emerges from a century of dormancy, it will take all that his friends can do to keep him from killing again. Can he overcome the darkness? Or will he succumb to it? RR Please!
1. Chapter One: Reemerging

The Hitokiri's Legacy

Chapter One: Re-emerging

It was a typical night for the members of Weiss. They'd gotten their orders, gone out to see what they could find, and then located their quarry. But there was something unusual going on with Ran. Every night for the past week, Ran Fujimiya, codename Abyssinian, was awakened from uneasy sleep by nightmares. He wasn't a fidgety person by any stretch of the imagination, but he was spooked. In the nightmares themselves, he was another person; another man in another lifetime. This man had long, blood-red hair, and golden eyes. One look at this man meant death to the beholder. 

"_Hitokiri_………………_Battousai_…………._That is who you are. That is who I was. I am in your blood, Ran, and very soon I will make myself known._" The man had said, in an eerie voice, as the moon rose behind him, casting all but his eyes into shadow. And it was the image of those glowing golden eyes that woke Ran from sleep every morning. That image was what Ran carried with him into the fray that night, and proved to be his undoing.

"Abyssinian! Wait for us! Don't be reckless!" Omi shouted, into his communicator. He received nothing but static as a response.

"Dammit! He's gone out of range! What is with him tonight?! He's never been this reckless before!" Youji grumbled, as he finished off some security guards.

"I don't know, but something's driving him to do it. Did you see the way his eyes were before we left?" Ken asked, his end sounding relatively quiet, compared to Omi and Youji's. 

"Yeah. They almost seemed to have a gold sheen to them. It was kinda spooky." Omi murmured, as they rushed to catch up with their red-haired leader. They could hear the sounds of dying men, and the sound of steel through flesh and bone, ahead of them. They were not prepared for what they saw next; there, standing in the midst of all the dead men, stood Ran, his katana dripping with blood. 

"Abyssinian?" Omi asked, his voice almost a whisper. He got no response.

"Abyssinian, it's time to go. You got our target tonight." Youji said, as he took a step towards the silent assassin. Still no answer. Then Ken reached out and stopped Youji, his eyes widening in fear.

"Balinese, don't get any closer to him. He's not himself." Ken whispered, fearfully.

"What do you mean? Siberian, what is going on?" Youji asked, a bit perturbed that his teammate was so afraid of his leader.

"Take a good look at his eyes." Ken replied, just as Ran turned his gaze to them. Youji gasped and backed up a step, and Ken and Omi did the same; Ran's eyes were no longer their usual purple color, they were now an eerie golden hue. 

"That's not Abyssinian……………." Youji muttered, for once in his life sounding frightened. 

"Hitokiri Battousai…………….." Omi whispered, his heart in his throat as Ran took a step towards them, eyes glowing as he did so. 

"What? What do you mean by that, Bombay?" Youji asked, as they slowly backed away from Ran.

"I'd read that the legendary Hitokiri Battousai had blood-red hair and golden eyes. Abyssinian fits that description now." Omi said, prepared to run when the opportunity presented itself.

"But the real Battousai's been dead for almost a hundred years, Bombay! How could you say that he's standing before us now?!" Youji yelped, as Ran took a swing at them with his bloodied katana.

"It could be that he's related to the Battousai in some way or………." Omi trailed off, as a thought struck him.

"Or what? Spit it out, Bombay!" Ken shouted, tensely.

"Or he's the reincarnated Hitokiri Battousai. Either way, we're in big trouble." Omi said, dodging another swing from the deadly, razor sharp blade, and dashing down the stairs, with Youji and Ken right behind him. Down the flights of stairs they flew, as though a demon was on their tail. They were almost out of the building when Youji let out a yell of pain and fell forward, his back bleeding from a sword wound.

"Ran! It's us! Stop attacking!" Omi pleaded, as Youji lay on his stomach on the pavement, Ken trying to stanch the bleeding with his shirt. Ran stared at them, his soulless golden eyes boring holes into them. Instead of stopping, Ran, or should I say, Hitokiri Battousai, raised his katana again, prepared to deliver the killing blow to the three before him. Before he could, however, someone stopped him. One moment, he was standing before them, the messenger of death himself, the next, he was lying in a crumpled heap before them, with a tall, white-robed man behind him.

"Are you three all right?" the man in white asked, as he looked at them with dark eyes.

"With the exception of Youji, we're fine." Omi said, shakily, as the white-robed man stepped forward and inspected Youji's wound.

"Get this treated immediately, and he should be all right. Just be glad that the baka deshi didn't do anything else." The stranger said, as he gave Ran a look of disdain.

"Baka deshi? Sir, do you know Ran that well?" Ken asked, as he watched the stranger pick Ran up as though he was a child.

"I knew him when he wasn't Ran." The stranger replied, enigmatically, as he started to walk away.

"Wait! Who are you? Where are you taking him?" Omi asked.

"He's too dangerous to keep in this city, while the Battousai within him is emerging. I will keep watch over him, and help him if I can." The stranger said, avoiding Omi's question completely.

"But who are you? How did you know about the Battousai emerging tonight?" Youji asked, ignoring the searing pain in his back as he spoke. The stranger paused and cast a glance over his shoulder at Youji.

"If you must know, then this is my name; Hiko Seijuro the Thirteenth, master of the Hiten Mitserugi Ryu." The stranger said, before disappearing into the night, taking Ran with him.

"Guys, things have just gotten a whole hell of a lot harder to understand." Youji muttered.

"What do you mean, Youji?" Ken asked, as he and Omi helped Youji to his feet.

"Hiko Seijuro the Thirteenth……………Master of the Hiten Mitserugi Ryu…….was supposed to have died almost a hundred years ago. He wasn't even supposed to be here, yet he was." Youji said, with disbelief in his voice.

"But has he been reborn? Or was that really the original Hiko Seijuro?" Omi asked.

"He was real. I don't know how, but I believe he was the real thing. All we can do now is trust him." Ken said, as they all looked in the direction the mysterious sword master had gone in. 

"Hmm. Interesting." Schuldich murmured, as he sat back in his chair.

"What is?" Crawford asked, irritably.

"Something's up with our old friend Abyssinian. Something inside of him is waking up." Schuldich said, with a smirk.

"What's waking up?" Nagi asked, from across the table. He'd been trying to catch up on homework, but now was interested in what his fellow assassins had to say.

"Something deadly." Schuldich replied, looking genuinely amused by what he'd discovered.

"Well? What is it, Schuldich?" Crawford asked, impatiently.

"Hitokiri Battousai. The manslayer has been reborn." Schuldich said, looking around the table, gauging his companions' reactions. Crawford gave him his 'Please explain' look, while Nagi just paled, his eyes wide with dread. Out of the four Schwartz assassins, only Nagi truly knew what that meant, and he was filled with fear at he thought. The manslayer has returned after almost a century. And he was after blood. 


	2. Chapter Two: Mistaken Identities?

Chapter Two: Mistaken Identities?

When the flower shop reopened the next day, Omi and Ken went about their business in a daze. The events of the previous night still haunted them. Even Youji, who usually ogled every single girl that entered the store, was strangely subdued.

"Boys? Are you okay?" Manx asked, when she'd entered the shop and noticed the changes in their behavior.

"Huh...Oh. Hey Manx." Omi muttered, listlessly, as he gave her a weak smile.

"Hey. What's the matter, you three? You look like you've all seen a ghost." Manx said, as she concernedly felt each of their foreheads in turn for a fever.

"We saw one last night." Ken said, his voice soft; almost lost amidst the comings and goings of the shop's customers.

"A ghost? Are you serious?" Manx questioned; incredulous, to say the least. Youji nodded.

"Yeah...And he struck with Ran's sword." Youji murmured, not even looking up when another customer entered the shop and began to look at the packets of seeds on the rack nearby.

"Explain please. It isn't like you to be this cryptic, Youji." Manx stated, with some impatience, "Where the hell is Ran?"

"You wouldn't believe us, even if we told you." Youji replied, tiredly.

"Try me. What was it that you saw last night that has you three acting so strange today?" Manx again asked.

"Hitokiri Battousai...He showed up through Ran last night and almost killed Youji." Omi said, flinching when someone in the aisle behind him fell off of a stepladder with a yelp. As Ken rushed to see if he could help the customer, the conversation continued.

"You've got to be joking." Manx muttered, her expression deadpanning as she said that.

"We aren't. In fact, not only did we see what could have been a reborn Battousai, but we also saw his master as well." Omi added, remembering the tall, powerful warrior that had helped them the previous night.

"Battousai's master? You mean the fabled Hiko Seijuro? How do you know if he was even the real one?" Manx asked, not wanting to believe their story, yet finding it even more difficult to disprove.

"He told us who he was, Manx...and he even told us that he'd known about Battousai's re-emergence." Youji said, with grim certainty in his voice and eyes that Manx couldn't deny.

"And he has Ran now? Is that it?" Manx asked. She only got nods from the two assassins for an answer.

"_Damn_..." Manx thought, as it finally sank in that Ran was indeed missing, and in the hands of an unknown, and previously deceased, third party.

"_Persia is not going to like this_..."

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv(divider)

Ken got to the downed man just as the fellow propped himself on his elbows and muttered a disoriented 'Oro' in response to a flower pot that now rested on top of his head.

"Hey! You all right?" Ken asked, as he raced around the end of the aisle to see if he could help the customer that had fallen.

"Hai, de gozaru. Thanks for being so concerned! Just got a bit clumsy, that's all!" a cheery, if somewhat dazed, voice said in response.

"Whew. Good to hear. I'd hate to think that somebody'd get hurt while in here!" Ken said, as he offered the man a hand up, and as the man gratefully accepted it.

"Indeed. It's good that you think so highly of your customers, that you wish them only safety while they are in here." the man stated, as he carefully removed the flower pot from his head and handed it to Ken.

"If you say so, but...!" Ken started to say, then froze when he saw the man's face. A youthful, almost childish visage that had amethyst eyes gazed back at him with a sad, yet warm smile. Bright red hair, a bit longer than shoulder length, hung in a loose tail between his shoulders and a faded scar graced his left cheek. It was the scar that definitely got Ken's attention; even though it was very faint, the distinct shape of a cross was to be seen there.

"_T-there's_..._no way._..._It can't possibly be_..." Ken thought, before his knees buckled, and everything around him faded into darkness.

Author's Note!

Yeah, I know that this was a VERY short chapter, but there is a reason for it. I am finally going to start updating it again! I am so sorry about the long wait between chapters, minna, and the next one will not take this long to appear. That much I can promise! Hope this was okay!

Gemini14


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